Tag: florida

Dem Congresswoman Is Under Investigation Over Missing Funds

U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) is under investigation for allegedly violating several House rules, including allegations that she misused congressional funds for a for-profit entity.

Investigators with the Office of Congressional Ethics found “substantial reason to believe” the congresswoman she sought money for a community project and directed it to a private business. The findings were revealed after an investigation that has been ongoing for the better part of a year.

Investigators also found “probable cause” to further investigate allegations that she accepted campaign contributions linked to official actions. Cherfilus-McCormick has denied the allegations and said she has fully cooperated with the investigation in a statement to WPTV.

The Office of Congressional Conduct (OCC) is now calling for a full scale probe concerning the $5 million she obtained from Congress’ 2023 budget, which was supposed to be routed to the Figgers Foundation, a Florida telemedicine non-profit. Instead, the funds were routed to a for-profit entity.

The Democrat lawmaker is also facing additional allegations of misusing funds dating back to 2023.

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DeSantis Signs Gold Money Legislation Into Law

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed “transactional gold” legislation on Wednesday, aiming to help Floridians use precious metals in commerce and savings to protect their purchasing power from inflation.

The move can also protect the freedom and privacy of citizens if federal policymakers were to ever revisit Biden-era plans for tools such as a central bank digital currency, the governor said. Those federal proposals were among the key reasons this sort of state policy was pursued in the first place, he said.

The new law, passed unanimously by lawmakers in both chambers, aims to create a system that citizens can use to buy, store, sell, save, and transact with gold and silver.

It creates a framework for precious metals to become a part of everyday commerce, with backing and authorization from the state.

Eventually, the law will pave the way for consumers to use a debit card-style card or app to pay for everyday needs with precious metals held in a depository. Merchants, though, could choose to be paid in dollars if they prefer.

The metals are now considered “legal tender” under state law, too, making them exempt from state sales taxes.

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Trump Rightly Pardons 2 Florida Divers Who Became Federal Felons Because of an Honest Mistake

Here are some things you don’t do when you know you are committing a crime. You don’t do it in broad daylight in front of witnesses. You don’t enlist the help of those witnesses and invite them to record the event with their smartphones. You don’t report what happened to a law enforcement agency or leave evidence of the incident in plain view in a public place.

John Moore and Tanner Mansell, two Florida diving instructors, did all of those things on August 10, 2020, when they took Camryn Kuehl and her family on a snorkeling trip and came across a buoy-tethered fishing line that had caught 19 sharks. Moore and Mansell, who worked for a company that specializes in shark encounters, told the Kuehls the catch was “illegal.” Based on that assessment, they hauled in the line and freed the sharks, reported the incident to Florida Fish and Wildlife Officer Barry Partelow, and followed his instructions by leaving the fishing gear on the marina dock in Jupiter. But after it turned out that the shark catch had been authorized as part of a research project, both men were convicted of a federal felony, even though the evidence suggested they had made an honest mistake.

President Donald Trump reversed that injustice on Wednesday, when he granted pardons to Moore and Mansell. Unlike many of Trump’s clemency decisions, such as his pardons for violent Capitol rioters and corrupt public officials who abused their powers for personal gain, his intervention in this case epitomizes how “the benign prerogative of pardoning,” as Alexander Hamilton called it, should be used: to make “exceptions in favor of unfortunate guilt,” overriding “cruel” criminal penalties in circumstances that “plead for a mitigation of the rigor of the law.”

That certainly seems like an apt description of this case. Kuehl, who documented the shark release with photos that she posted on social media, testified that she “thought we were doing a great thing.” That was the impression she got from Moore and Mansell, whose conduct suggests they were sincere in that belief. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Watts-FitzGerald nevertheless obtained an indictment that charged them with violating 18 USC 661, which applies to someone who “takes and carries away, with intent to steal or purloin, any personal property of another” within “the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States.”

During their 2023 trial in the Southern District of Florida, Moore and Mansell asked Judge Donald Middlebrooks to instruct the jury that stealing property means wrongfully taking it “with intent to deprive the owner of the use or benefit permanently or temporarily and to convert it to one’s own use or the use of another.” After the prosecution objected to including a conversion element, Middlebrooks omitted it, although he did tell the jury that the defendants maintained they had “removed property without the bad purpose to disobey or disregard the law and therefore did not act with the intent to steal or purloin.”

The jurors, whose deliberations lasted longer than it took to present them with the evidence against Moore and Mansell, evidently were troubled by the facts of the case. They sent the judge several notes before telling him they were unable to reach a verdict. Middlebrooks then gave them an Allen charge, encouraging them to continue deliberating and saying they should be open to changing their positions, provided they could do so “without violating your individual judgment and conscience.”

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GOP Politician Who Threatened to Call In Russian-Ukrainian Hit Squad to Assassinate Rep. Paulina Luna – Gets Only 3 Years Prison Time!

Republican politician Robert Braddock III was sentenced to three years in prison after threatening to assassinate Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) with a Russian-Ukrainian hit squad.

Braddock was sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday.

Braddock III was caught on an audio call talking about killing the “c*nt” to rid her from he race.

Matt Gaetz at OANN broke the story this week.

Matt Gaetz: Anna Paulina Luna, America’s Congresswoman from my beloved Florida. This military spouse, Air Force veteran, Maxim model, Turning Point influencer, badass Congresswoman is a force in the United States House of Representatives. She led the resolution to censure Adam Schiff. She’s a tireless advocate for fellow veterans in her Tampa Bay area district. She’s an excellent communicator and a thought leader in the strident House Freedom Caucus.

Did you also know there was a plot to assassinate her during her second and successful run for Congress? In 2021, during the Republican primary for Florida’s 13th Congressional district, candidate William Robert Braddock III, which, by the way, is just a delightful name, he threatened to have his opponent, Congresswoman Luna, assassinated. In a recorded call with a GOP activist, Braddock claimed that he would employ a Russian-Ukrainian hit squad to eliminate Luna if she continued to perform well in the polls because voters actually like her. If that sounds crazy to you, it sounded crazy to a lot of people. They said she was nuts. They said, I was nuts to endorse her. But then listen to the tape.

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Florida serial killer praises Trump in final words before execution

A suspected serial killer once scrutinized for a possible link to the O.J. Simpson case that riveted the nation in the 1990s was executed Thursday in Florida for the murder of a woman found dead in a Tampa motel room.

Glen Rogers, 62, received a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke and was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m., authorities said. He was convicted in Florida of the 1995 murder of Tina Marie Cribbs, a 34-year-old mother of two he had met at a bar.

He also had drawn a separate death sentence in California for the 1995 strangulation killing of Sandra Gallagher, a mother of three whom he had met at a bar in Van Nuys in that state. That killing came weeks before the Cribbs murder. Rogers was stopped after a highway chase in Kentucky while driving Cribbs’ car soon after her death.

In a final statement, Rogers thanked his wife, who visited him earlier in the day at the prison, according to visitor logs. He also somewhat cryptically said that “in the near future, your questions will be answered” without going into detail. He also said, “President Trump, keep making America great. I’m ready to go.” Then the lethal injection began, and he lay quietly through the procedure.

The entire execution took just 16 minutes. Once it began, Rogers hardly moved, only lying still with his mouth slightly open. At one point, a staff member grasped him by the shoulders, shook him and yelled, “Rogers, Rogers” to see if he was conscious. No family members of the Florida victim spoke to the press afterwards.

Rogers was named as a suspect but never convicted in several other slayings around the country, once telling police he had killed about 70 people. He later recanted that statement, but had been the subject of documentaries, including one from 2012 called “My Brother the Serial Killer” that featured his brother Clay and a criminal profiler who had corresponded extensively with Rogers.

The documentary raised questions about whether Rogers could have been responsible for the 1994 stabbing deaths of Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.

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Colombian woman sentenced in Florida to 20 years in prison for kidnapping, drugging two US soldiers in Bogotá

A Colombian national has been sentenced to over 20 years in federal prison for her role in the drugging, kidnapping, and robbery of two US military service members in Bogotá, Colombia.

Kenny Julieth Uribe Chiran, 35, was sentenced in the Southern District of Florida to 262 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. She was also ordered to pay $24,115 in restitution. In March 2025, she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to kidnap internationally protected persons.

According to the US Justice Department, the incident occurred on the evening of March 5, 2020. The two US soldiers, on temporary duty in Bogotá, had visited a local pub in an entertainment district after watching a soccer match. There, Uribe Chiran and a co-conspirator approached them and secretly drugged their drinks with benzodiazepines. Once incapacitated, the soldiers were kidnapped, robbed of valuables and financial information, and later abandoned in separate locations across the city.

“Uribe Chiran and her co-defendants mercilessly preyed on US soldiers when they drugged their drinks, stole their valuables, and left them incapacitated on the street,” said Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Kidnapping and assaulting two US military service members is deplorable, and the Criminal Division will continue to prioritize protecting our service members through these prosecutions.”

US Attorney Hayden P. O’Byrne for the Southern District of Florida echoed that sentiment: “Kidnappings and assaults against US service members will not be tolerated. To those who would dare commit such reprehensible acts against America’s heroes, know this: We will identify you; we will find you; and we will prosecute you as aggressively as the law permits.”

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Victory for mom who claims child was sexually abused by AI chatbot that drove him to suicide

A Florida mother who claims her 14-year-old son was sexually abused and driven to suicide by an AI chatbot has secured a major victory in her ongoing legal case. 

Sewell Setzer III fatally shot himself in February 2024 after a chatbot sent him sexual messages telling him to ‘please come home.’ 

According to a lawsuit filed by his heartbroken mother Megan Garcia, Setzer spent the last weeks of his life texting an AI character named after Daenerys Targaryen, a character on ‘Game of Thrones,’ on the role-playing app Character.AI.

Garcia, who herself works as a lawyer, has blamed Character.AI for her son’s death and accused the founders, Noam Shazeer and Daniel de Freitas, of knowing that their product could be dangerous for underage customers. 

On Wednesday, U.S. Senior District Judge Anne Conway rejected arguments made by the AI company, who claimed its chatbots were protected under the First Amendment. 

The developers behind Charcter.AI, Character Technologies and Google are named as defendants in the legal filing. They are pushing to have the case dismissed. 

The teen’s chats ranged from romantic to sexually charged and also resembled two friends chatting about life.

The chatbot, which was created on role-playing app Character.AI, was designed to always text back and always answer in character.

It’s not known whether Sewell knew ‘Dany,’ as he called the chatbot, wasn’t a real person – despite the app having a disclaimer at the bottom of all the chats that reads, ‘Remember: Everything Characters say is made up!’

But he did tell Dany how he ‘hated’ himself and how he felt empty and exhausted.

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Former Florida congressional candidate sentenced to prison for threatening to kill opponent

A former Florida congressional candidate was sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday for threatening to kill his opponent in a primary race in 2021.

William Robert Braddock III, 41, of St. Petersburg, was sentenced in Tampa federal court after being charged with interstate transmission of threat to injure. He pleaded guilty in February.

According to court documents, Braddock viewed Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), who was the Republican frontrunner in Florida’s 13th Congressional District, as “his only obstacle to winning that race.”

While campaigning, Braddock, a former Marine, would disparage Luna and her peers to inject himself into his life. During a 2021 phone call with Luna’s acquaintance, a private citizen, Braddock threatened to have Luna murdered if she continued to poll well, specifically to “call up my Russian-Ukrainian hit squad” and make her “disappear,” according to a release from the Department of Justice (DOJ). 

Braddock subsequently fled to Thailand and eventually settled in the Philippines.

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DeSantis Signs Bill Increasing Penalties for ‘Swatting’ into Florida Law

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Wednesday that will increase penalties on people who make false 911 calls, commonly referred to as “swatting.”

The governor signed the bill, HB 279, at a high school in Winter Haven. Rep. Bill Partington (R-Ormond Beach) sponsored the legislation in the House, while Sen. Blaise Ingoglia (R-Spring Hill) led the Senate bill.

“If you swat, you are going to get hit with serious criminal offenses,” DeSantis said at a press conference.

Swatting calls are particularly dangerous, as police responding to a supposedly emergency incident are not aware that the call is bogus. Often targeted at a specific residence, the swatter will sometimes say a person is dangerous or someone is in danger, and a gun is present.

The false report can sometimes lead to someone being killed. It can also strain police manpower and resources away from serious emergency calls.

Under the bill, a person who makes a swatting call that leads to death will be charged with a second-degree felony. A person who makes a false report that leads to serious injury will be charged with a third-degree felony.

The bill also increases penalties for repeat offenders. Moreover, a swatter will be mandated by the court to pay restitution to public safety officials and victims for any damages that occur from the false report.

DeSantis signed a bill establishing swatting penalties in 2021.

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Members Of Congress Want Federal Investigation Into Use Of Florida Medicaid Funds To Oppose Marijuana Legalization By Group Tied To DeSantis

Two Democratic members of Congress representing Florida are asking the federal government to investigate what they describe as “potentially unlawful diversion” of millions in state Medicaid funds via a group with ties to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). The money was used to fight against a citizen ballot initiative, vehemently opposed by DeSantis, that would have legalized marijuana for adults.

Reps. Kathy Castor and Darren Soto sent a letter on Thursday to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) inspector general as well as Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, formally requesting they initiate a Medicaid fraud investigation.

“The diversion of Medicaid dollars requires immediate investigation,” the two lawmakers wrote. “These are proceeds that rightfully belong to state taxpayers to serve the citizens who rely on Medicaid, including children, pregnant women, neighbors with disabilities and those served by long-term care.”

The two lawmakers, members of a House committee with oversight of Medicaid, emphasized that Congress is “very focused on waste, fraud and abuse of Medicaid dollars.”

“Any unlawful diversion of Medicaid dollars in Florida,” they wrote, “means that the state is less able to provide services to our neighbors who rely on Medicaid and the providers who serve them.”

The letter follows allegations that a $10 million donation from a state legal settlement was improperly made to the Hope Florida Foundation, which later sent the money to two political nonprofits, which in turn sent $8.5 million to a campaign opposing the proposed marijuana legalization ballot measure, Amendment 3.

Notably, the Hope Florida Foundation was founded by Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis, the governor’s wife.

“On October 17, Secure Florida’s Future donated $2 million to Keep Florida Clean Inc., a Political Action Committee (PAC) controlled by Governor DeSantis’s then-chief of staff James Uthmeier that was created to campaign against Amendment 3,” the lawmakers’ new letter says. “Governor DeSantis strongly opposed Amendment 3. Days later, Secure Florida’s Future sent Keep Florida Clean Inc. an additional $1.75 million.”

“On October 22, the Hope Florida Foundation wired $5 million to the 501(c)4 nonprofit Save Our Society from Drugs that proposed spending the ‘grant’ on ‘developing and implementing strategies that directly address the substance use crisis facing our communities,’” it continues, detailing the alleged impropriety. “On October 23, the next day, Save Our Society from Drugs donated $1.6 million to Keep Florida Clean Inc. Over the coming days, Save Our Society from Drugs donated an additional $3.15 million to Keep Florida Clean Inc.”

“While there are limited financial disclosure requirements associated with 501(c)4 organizations,” the lawmakers said, “records appear to show that a total of $8.5 million from the Centene settlement with AHCA went from the Hope Florida Foundation to the Amendment 3-focused Keep Florida Clean, Inc. PAC, the same PAC that also donated funding to the Republican Party of Florida and the Florida Freedom Fund. ”

“Hope Florida had raised only about $2 million during its three years of existence,” they pointed out, “but in one fell swoop, received $10 million from a Medicaid settlement, which was immediately funneled through other nonprofits to a PAC directed by the Governor’s Chief of Staff.”

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